The Cleveland Orchestra's Humanities Festival and the Rest of the Classical Music to Catch This Week

Credit: Photo by Roger Mastroianni, Courtesy of The Cleveland Orchestra

This week’s highlights include two festivals, an orchestra performance featuring a local troubadour, a concert by three first-rate, second-chair members of The Cleveland Orchestra, and several events starring young performers.

– The Cleveland Orchestra’s Humanities Festival launches on Thursday at 7 with the first of four staged performances of Mozart’s fantastical Masonic opera, The Magic Flute, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, directed by Nikolaus Habjan, and featuring giant puppets (repeated on Saturday the 18th). Tickets available online.

That Severance Music Center festival continues on Friday at 7:30 when the formidable American pianist Conrad Tao presents his program “Power and Influence” in Reinberger Recital Hall at Severance, featuring music by Rachmaninoff and popular tunes inspired by his iconic melodies.

– Re:Sound 2024, a festival produced by the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project, will pack a lot of new and experimental music into next weekend, beginning on Friday at with RAGE Thormbones (Mattie Barbier & Weston Olencki), plus Theresa May & Sarah Overton, and Lea Bertucci & Henry Fraser.

– On Saturday, Maya Nguyen and Elliott Sharp will play two sets, followed on Sunday by Charlotte Munn-Wood, Otal and Charles Peoples III. All concerts begin at 7:30 at Convivium 33 Gallery.

– On Friday, Cleveland Orchestra trumpeter Jack Sutte, hornist Jesse McCormick, and trombonist Richard Stout, who have wittily dubbed themselves the Factory Seconds Duo, will visit Chagrin Falls for a 7 pm recital at the Federated Church.

– On Saturday, guitarist Alex Bevan will be featured with the Akron Symphony in arrangements of original songs from his Water-Songs album by guest conductor Eric Benjamin (7:30 in E.J. Thomas Hall).

– Those Youthcentric events begin with a Contemporary Youth Orchestra concert on Friday at 7 at Tri-C Metro Auditorium, when Kristopher Morron will lead Dana Hall’s and Chris Coles’ Nine Lives Project, recounting the story of the nine souls who lost their lives in the 2015 shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

– On Sunday at 3, the Cleveland Composers Guild will present their 32nd Annual Junior Concert, entitled Creativity: Learning through Experience at The Music Settlement in University Circle, followed by a Suburban Symphony concert at 3:30 at Beachwood High School led by Domenico Boyagian that features concerto competition winners Cole Flores, flute, Elora Kares, cello, and Sabrina Kerze, piano.

Click here to visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page for more information.

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